PCC holds unique safeguarding partnership workshop (6 Oct 2017)

Mark Burns-Williamson, West
Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) held the first ever
workshop of its kind bringing together local partnerships who work
to keep the people and communities of West Yorkshire safe.

The aim of the event was to explore how these partnerships can
better work together across the county to further protect
vulnerable people.

Representatives from the Local Safeguarding Children's Boards
(LSCB's), Safeguarding Adults Boards (SAB's) and the Community
Safety Partnerships (CSP's) attended the event which was held in
Leeds this week (05/10).

The workshop kicked off with presentations from each district on
how they are protecting and supporting vulnerable people and
helping the PCC deliver the Police and Crime Plan. This was
followed by table discussions on further development of joint
safeguarding strategies and how the PCC can further support their
work.

A number of ideas and good practices were shared during the
event strengthening the consistent and cohesive delivery of
safeguarding across West Yorkshire.

The attendees agreed to explore what else could be done to build
upon other safeguarding successes for the county, such as the West
Yorkshire Safeguarding Week. The Week is in its second year and
launches on Monday 9th October seeing numerous events all across
the towns and cities of West Yorkshire.

West Yorkshire has a number of county wide safeguarding
approaches already in place for example the Domestic and Sexual
Abuse Board, the Mental health and Criminal Justice Forum, the West
Yorkshire Safeguarding Communications Group and Child Sexual
Exploitation Strategy Group and this event looked to add to this
coordinated and cohesive approach to a challenging area.

Work will now continue in partnership to develop the discussions
and ideas from the event with a focus on communication, governance,
joint strategies and agreed priorities that West Yorkshire could
tackle collectively.

Mark Burns-Williamson, said: "Safeguarding vulnerable people is
an absolute priority for myself, West Yorkshire Police and our
partners and Safeguarding Boards have a crucial role to play.

"A person is vulnerable if as a result of their situation or
circumstances they are unable to take care or protect themselves,
or others, from harm or exploitation or other adverse impact on
their quality of life.

"Vulnerability can take many forms and can be linked to, for
example, mental health, substance misuse, or age. This means that
each individual must be supported in a way that recognises their
personal circumstances and requires different agencies to work
effectively together to provide for their differing safeguarding
needs.

"We are stronger together and part of my role is to encourage
partnership working which I really do see as key in tackling all
policing and community safety issues. I'd like to thank everyone
for attending the workshop and I look forward to continuing to work
closely together to protect those most at risk."